MPS Council

MPS Council is the name given to MPS’s board of directors, and the majority of its members are eminent clinicians elected by the membership. The Council meets around eight times a year. Council exercises discretion in accordance with the Memorandum and Articles of Association.

As the majority of Council members are healthcare professionals, members can be assured that their cases will be dealt with by experts in the field.

The President is not a director of the board under the terms of the Companies Act, but is elected by the membership and is entitled to, and does, attend Council meetings, participating fully in the discussions. The role of the President is an active one that provides a valuable channel for engagement between members and the Council.

Professor Dacre is a Consultant Physician and Rheumatologist at the Whittington Hospital in north London, and formerly the director of UCL Medical School. She is leading an evaluation of the effects of gender and ethnicity on the career trajectories and performance of women doctors. She was awarded Woman of Achievement in medicine and healthcare in 2012, by Women in the City and was in the inaugural Health Service Journal list of inspirational women in healthcare in 2013.

She has served as President of the Royal College of Physicians since 2014, a role which she will step down from on 26 September 2018.

Ian Eardley joined the Council as a non-executive director in November 2015, was elected by the membership at the Annual General Meeting in June 2016, and appointed Chairman on 1 October, 2018.

Ian studied medicine at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge and at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, and undertook urological training in St Bartholomew's Hospital, Portsmouth, Cambridge and Norwich. He was appointed to the post of Consultant Urologist at Leeds General Infirmary in 1993 where he has worked ever since, specialising in andrology, reconstruction of the urinary tract and genital surgery.

In 2014 he was awarded the St Peter’s medal by the British Association of Urological surgeons for his contributions to the advancement of Urology. He has extensive experience in surgical education and training, and has been Chairman of the Joint Committee for Surgical training. He was elected to the Council of the Royal College of Surgeons in 2010 and became Vice President of the College in July 2015.

Martin Thomas joined the Council as a non-executive director of MPS in September 2017 and was elected by the membership at the Annual General Meeting in October 2017. He was appointed Vice-Chairman of the Council on 1 April 2019.

He is chairman of BACIT (UK) Limited, and manager of the Syncona Limited portfolio of assets. He was chairman of Lancashire Holdings Limited, the FTSE 250 specialty insurance company, for 10 years, and a partner and board member at Altima Partners. He is a member of the Brexit High Level Advisory Group of the FMLC at the Bank of England, and of the 30% Club.

Mr Thomas has been an official of the Bank of England, where he established the Financial Markets Law Committee, a secondee to the EU Commission, Deputy Chief Executive of the Financial Law Panel and senior counsel to the European Central Bank. He is a trustee of several charities.

Richard Brennan joined the Council as a non-executive director of MPS in July 2013 and was elected by the membership at the Annual General Meeting in June 2014.

He is a rural general practitioner in Ballyhale and Stoneyford, Co Kilkenny. From a medical family, he is a graduate of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. He is a member of the Irish College of General Practitioners and a Fellow of the Royal College of General Practitioners (UK). He is a founding member of the South Eastern General Practice Training programme, and is an active trainer on the programme. He is a former Chairman of Council ICGP, and has represented the ICGP on The National Taskforce on Medical Staffing (Hanly Report); The Medical Education and Training Group (Buttimer Report); and The National Primary Care Steering Group. He has also been a member of the Commission on Patient Safety and Quality Assurance, and was a member of the HSE Task Force on Emergency Departments. He has a keen interest in the general practice-hospital interface and the development of more integrated care for patients. He has recently completed his term as the ICGP nominee on the Irish Medical Council (2008-2013). Whilst on the council, he was also Chairman of the Medical Council’s Health Committee, a member of the Standards in Practice and the Fitness to Practice Committees.

Fiona Cornish joined the Council as a non-executive director of MPS in September 2017 and submits herself for formal election by the membership at the Annual General Meeting in October 2017.

She qualified from Cambridge and St Thomas’s, and has been a GP partner in Cambridge since 1990. She has combined clinical practice with active roles as an Out-of-Hours GP, appraiser, GP trainer, undergraduate teacher and member of the University Health and Wellbeing Committee. She is the school doctor for King’s School, Cambridge. She has been an officer in the Medical Women’s Federation for many years and was President from 2012-2014. This involved leading the strategic options of the organisation, and liaising with a wide range of doctors from Royal Colleges, the GMC, the BMA, and charitable organisations. She was on the General Practitioners’ Committee of the BMA for two years, which discussed the changes in the future of general practice resulting from the challenging circumstances.

Dr Cornish has been a trustee of Addenbrooke’s Charitable Trust since 2015, and is also a school governor.

Simon Kayll was elected to the Council as an executive director in June 2003.

He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. He joined MPS in February 1994 as Chief Accountant and was successively appointed as Financial Controller and then Finance Director in January 1999, also serving as Company Secretary for MPS and most of its subsidiary companies from March 2000 until December 2011. he was appointed Chief Executive of MPS on 1 January 2012, at which time his position on the Council became ex officio and thus he is not elected by the membership.

He has over 20 years' experience in financial services, having originally graduated in Mathematics from the University of Leeds. Howard also has experience in the mutual sector and with one of the UK’s leading insurance companies where he was finance director of their personal finance subsidiary. He has had extensive involvement in investment, credit management and capital markets and is a qualified corporate treasurer. He has been closely involved in economic development in the Leeds city region and has promoted the financial and professional service sector internationally, including lobbying at local and national government level. Howard is also MPS’s Finance Director – Finance and Risk and is responsible for overseeing all aspects of finance, investment, risk, internal audit and compliance.

Suzy Lishman joined the Council as a non-executive director on 1 September 2019.

Suzy is a consultant histopathologist at North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust and is the immediate past-president of the Royal College of Pathologists. She studied medicine at Girton College, Cambridge and the London Hospital Medical School.

Named 'the public face of pathology' in the Health Service Journal's inaugural list of inspirational women in healthcare, Suzy was also awarded the Royal Society Kohn Medal for public engagement, voted one of the ten most influential people in pathology worldwide by The Pathologist, and awarded a CBE in the 2018 New Year's Honours for services to pathology.

She has over a decade's experience as a charity trustee, chair and director and is currently a trustee of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and Death, the Royal Veterinary College and the Association for Art History. Suzy also chairs the Scientific Advisory Board of Bowel Cancer UK and the Medical Examiners Committee of the Royal College of Pathologists.

Jim McLenachan joined the Council as a non-executive director in November 2015 and submits himself for formal election by the membership at the Annual General Meeting in June 2016.

He graduated in medicine from Glasgow University in 1980. He then trained in cardiology in Glasgow and in Boston, Massachusetts (Harvard Medical School). He took up his post as consultant cardiologist at Leeds General Infirmary in 1992.

His main interest is in the treatment of angina and heart attack. He was an early adopter of coronary artery stents and contributed to the rapid national uptake of this new technology from 1992 onwards. Between 2004 and 2007, he led on the development of new heart attack treatments in Yorkshire. From 2008 until 2012, he was the National Clinical Lead for the roll-out of new heart attack treatments in England. In 2012, he was appointed chair of NHS England's Clinical Reference Group for Cardiology which advises the NHS on specialist treatments for heart disease.

He currently holds a number of posts including Clinical Director of Cardiology, Respiratory Medicine and Cardiac Surgery at Leeds Teaching Hospitals, Chairman of NHS England's Commissioning through Evaluation programme for the introduction and assessment of new technologies and Chairman of the National Cardiothoracic Benchmarking Collaborative.

Simon Pashby joined the Council as a non-executive director of MPS in November 2012 and was elected by the membership at the Annual general meeting in June 2013. He was Vice-Chairman of the Council from 1 January 2014 to 31 March 2019.

He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, with 30 years' audit experience and was previously a senior audit partner with KPMG, specialising in the regulated financial services sector. He has advised a range of organisations including listed investment fund managers and large UK mutuals in the insurance and healthcare sectors, with significant international operations. He has wide-ranging and recent financial experience advising Boards and their Audit Committees on financial reporting, accounting standards, risk management and internal control systems. He is also a non-executive director of the Scottish Building Society, where he chairs the operational risk committee.

David Roytowski joined the Council as a non-executive director of MPS in October 2019 and submits himself for formal election by the membership at the Annual General Meeting in June 2020.

David graduated in medicine from the University of Cape Town. After several years of clinical practice in ophthalmology, urology, general surgery and neurology in South Africa and the UK, he gained an MBA at INSEAD in France and Singapore. Management consulting at Monitor Group preceded specialisation as a Neurosurgeon at the University of Cape Town.

Dr Roytowski is a practicing academic neurosurgeon with a keen interest in pituitary disease, specialising in skull base and endoscopic surgeries. He is a consultant specialist at Tygerberg and Christiaan Barnard Memorial hospitals, a fellow of the College of Neurosurgeons of South Africa and an executive member of the Society of Neurosurgeons of South Africa.

Sandy Scott joined the Council as a non-executive director of MPS in August 2016 and submits himself for formal election by the membership at the Annual General Meeting in October 2017.

He served as CEO of The Chartered Insurance Institute from 2000 until 2016. Prior to this, he was Managing Director of Ingram Micro, Deputy Managing Director of PPP Healthcare, and a Major in the RAMC. He is or has been Chair of the Institute for Global Insurance Education, Chair of the European Financial Planning Association, Chair of the Association of British Insurers Private Medical Insurance Committee, Chair of The Society of Technicians in Insurance, President of the London Phoenix Orchestra and a Member of The Prince of Wales Expert Advisory Panel on Climate Change.

In 2011, Dr Scott won the Lifetime Achievement at the British Insurance Awards. He was clothed in the Worshipful Company of Insurers in 2003.

Sally Scutt joined the Council as a non-executuive director of MPS in July 2013 and was elected by the membership at the Annual General Meeting in June 2014.

Until June 2015 she was Deputy Chief Executive of the British Bankers' Association and Managing Director of the International Banking Federation. She is currently Strategic Advisor to the International Compliance Association. She is a graduate in Chinese Studies from the University of Durham. She also holds further degrees in business administration and the management of human resources. She has more than 30 years’ experience in international and private banking, holding a variety of senior management positions. More recently she has been focused on the development of regulatory policy in financial services both national and internationally. This has included a broad range of issues relevant to the banking sector, including financial inclusion and financial literacy, combating financial crime, and the regulation of capital markets.

Graham Stokes joined the Council as a non-executive director of MPS in September 2017 and submits himself for formal election by the membership at the Annual General Meeting in October 2017.

He qualified as a dentist from Birmingham in 1984. He is the lead clinician in a referral dental practice in Bromsgrove with a special interest in implants and prosthetics. He was a vocational training adviser from 1999-2009 and now lectures widely on a range of dental topics. He was on the Principal Executive Committee of the British Dental Association from 2010 -2014 and was chair of the British Dental Association’s Health and Science committee from 2010-2015.Graham is a current member of the BDA ’s English and UK councils.

Dr Stokes is a senior clinical adviser and member of the council of reference for the charity Bridge2aid, and has led numerous teams of dental volunteers to Tanzania providing dental emergency care.

Mike Urmston joined the Council as a non-executive director of MPS in August 2016 and submits himself for formal election by the membership at the Annual General Meeting in October 2017.

He is an Actuary and Finance Director with wide experience of the Life and Pensions industry. He worked for Aviva plc and many of its predecessor companies for 38 years, where he was a Life Board Director, Chief Actuary and Finance Director of GA Life, CGU Life and finally Norwich Union Life. Most recently, he has supported Aviva plc in the negotiation of the reattribution of its Inherited Estate. He was also a trustee of the Aviva plc pension scheme and a member of the Regulatory Decisions Committee of the Financial Conduct Authority.

Mr Urmston is now Chairman of the Life Companies of the Pheonix Group, Non-Executive Director of Police Mutual Assurance Society, Ageas Insurance Ltd and Ageas Retail Services Ltd and Alternate Chair of Tesco Underwriting. In addition, he is Chair of AIG Life (UK) and is also a member of the Finance Committee for King’s College London.

Tom Weitzman joined the Council as a non-executive director of MPS in August 2016, and submits himself for formal election by the membership at the Annual General Meeting in October 2017.

He is a practicing barrister, specialising in the fields of insurance and professional negligence. His insurance expertise includes regulatory matters and he is regularly instructed by the Financial Conduct Authority. He does not practice in the field of medical negligence.

Mr Weitzman was appointed QC in 2003 and is a Recorder (part-time judge) and a bencher (member of the governing council) of Gray’s Inn. He was formerly a director and then chair of Cardboard Citizens (a charity which works with the homeless) and a trustee of the Gray’s Inn Scholarship Fund (which provides financial assistance to law students).

Callum Youngson joined the Council as a non-executive director in July 2017 when he was appointed Chair of MPS’s subsidiary, Dental Protection Limited, having served on the Board of Dental Protection since 2014. His position on Council is ex officio and thus he is not elected by the membership.

He graduated as a dentist from Dundee in 1982, and then trained in various hospital and university posts at Leeds Dental School, becoming Senior Lecturer/Hon Consultant in Restorative Dentistry in 1997 and subsequently Head of Conservative Dentistry. In 2004, he was appointed Professor of Restorative Dentistry at Liverpool University and Head of the School of Dentistry from 2008 until 2017, where he taught the BDS Law and Ethics course.

Professor Youngson sits on a number of national committees in dentistry and has most recently chaired Dental Schools Council. He is currently the Head of the Institute of Clinical Sciences (incorporating the Schools of Dentistry, Health Sciences and Medicine) at the University of Liverpool. His long-term clinical interests lie in the failure of fixed prosthodontics, managing toothwear and the diagnosis of complex oro-facial pain.

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The Medical Protection Society Limited (MPS) is a company limited by guarantee registered in England with company number 00036142 at Level 19, The Shard, 32 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9SG.

MPS is not an insurance company. All the benefits of membership of MPS are discretionary as set out in the Memorandum and Articles of Association. MPS® and Medical Protection® are registered trademarks.